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Avalanche

161 statements
30 feature instances
7 referencing feature instances

Avalanche	type	TVTItem
Avalanche	label	Avalanche
Avalanche	page	Avalanche
Avalanche	comment	Avalanche is a 1978 Disaster Movie directed by Corey Allen, starring Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow.Entrepreneur David Shelby (Hudson) has fought tooth-and-nail to build a ski resort deep in the Rockies. During an especially busy time of the ski season, his ex-wife Caroline (Farrow) comes for a visit. As Shelby unsuccessfully attempts to get back together with her, Shelby's mother Florence enjoys the party life at the lodge, a star skier arrives at the resort with much fanfare, and many other characters are introduced as they have the time of their lives at the resort. But then, a lost airplane crashes into the snow that sits precariously atop the mountain, sending tons of snow onto the unsuspecting resort...The film was a Box Office Bomb upon release; and has since gained new life as the subject of the fourth episode of the reboot of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Tropes pertaining to that episode can be found here.Not to be confused with the Atari arcade game of the same name that was released the same year.
Avalanche	fetched	2023-11-12T04:43:57Z
Avalanche	parsed	2023-11-12T04:43:57Z
Avalanche	processingComment	Dropped link to BystanderEffect: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
Avalanche	processingComment	Dropped link to Fanservice: Not a Feature - IGNORE
Avalanche	processingUnknown	BystanderEffect
Avalanche	isPartOf	DBTropes
Avalanche / int_281de59f	type	Extremely Short Timespan
Avalanche / int_281de59f	comment	Extremely Short Timespan: The events unfold over the course of the opening weekend of the resort.
Avalanche / int_281de59f	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_281de59f	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_281de59f
Avalanche / int_31a2a33c	type	Stuff Blowing Up
Avalanche / int_31a2a33c	comment	Stuff Blowing Up: A gas leak in the lodge shortly after the avalanche hits causes an explosion in the lodge kitchen and sends many people and objects flying. The ambulance that careens off the bridge (with David's mother inside) at the end winds up exploding into a mighty fireball shortly after landing. Jonah and the bots joke that it was caused by all the alcohol in Florence's blood.
Avalanche / int_31a2a33c	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_31a2a33c	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_31a2a33c
Avalanche / int_3338a4c2	type	Hair-Trigger Avalanche
Avalanche / int_3338a4c2	comment	Hair-Trigger Avalanche: Set up all movie that it won't take much to set off an avalanche. In this case it's a plane crash.
Avalanche / int_3338a4c2	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_3338a4c2	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_3338a4c2
Avalanche / int_3ec7c277	type	Every Car Is a Pinto
Avalanche / int_3ec7c277	comment	Every Car Is a Pinto: The ambulance.
Avalanche / int_3ec7c277	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_3ec7c277	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_3ec7c277
Avalanche / int_44f5d199	type	Pretty in Mink
Avalanche / int_44f5d199	comment	Pretty in Mink: Florence owns a mink coat and hat, showing she's well off either by herself or from marriage.
Avalanche / int_44f5d199	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_44f5d199	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_44f5d199
Avalanche / int_45ad2569	type	Vagueness Is Coming
Avalanche / int_45ad2569	comment	And then there's Nick. Pretty much everything he says to David goes in one ear and out the other. It does not helps that all Nick has is a gut feeling, which he keeps describing as "a heaviness".
Avalanche / int_45ad2569	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_45ad2569	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_45ad2569
Avalanche / int_4c98c951	type	Stuck on a Ski Lift
Avalanche / int_4c98c951	comment	Stuck on a Ski Lift: Played for drama. Well, it would have been if the rescue team hadn't been so astoundingly incompetent.
Avalanche / int_4c98c951	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_4c98c951	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_4c98c951
Avalanche / int_5313c266	type	Bookends
Avalanche / int_5313c266	comment	Book Ends: The movie both begins and ends with Caroline driving up to the resort in a taxi.
Avalanche / int_5313c266	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_5313c266	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_5313c266
Avalanche / int_550754dc	type	Improbable Infant Survival
Avalanche / int_550754dc	comment	Improbable Infant Survival: Zigzagged; little Jason escapes the disaster unscathed, but we do see other kids getting caught in the avalanche as it's happening, including one girl who is thrown against a fence by the snow and likely broke her back from the impact.
Avalanche / int_550754dc	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_550754dc	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_550754dc
Avalanche / int_59907e4f	type	Police Are Useless
Avalanche / int_59907e4f	comment	Police Are Useless: Not just the police, but pretty much all of the emergency services in the film are pretty incompetent, to the point where they are directly responsible for a sizable percentage of the on-screen deaths (including two named characters).
Avalanche / int_59907e4f	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_59907e4f	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_59907e4f
Avalanche / int_6b05b601	type	Jerkass Has a Point
Avalanche / int_6b05b601	comment	Jerkass Has a Point: David has professionals keeping track of the avalanche danger, gives Nick (an unqualified photographer) a fair hearing, and doesn't dismiss his concerns until he reveals he has no specific warning signs to point out other than an intuition of "a heaviness". Nick turns out to be right, but by all the evidence it's a complete coincidence.
Avalanche / int_6b05b601	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_6b05b601	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_6b05b601
Avalanche / int_6e27397	type	Missed Him by That Much
Avalanche / int_6e27397	comment	Missed Him by That Much: As rescue crews are sticking poles into the ground in search of missing skiers, they just barely miss Bruce twice. By the time they actually do find him, it's too late.
Avalanche / int_6e27397	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_6e27397	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_6e27397
Avalanche / int_77315f4f	type	You Have to Believe Me!
Avalanche / int_77315f4f	comment	You Have to Believe Me!: Photographer Nick Thorne warns everyone that the slope conditions are dangerous and is ultimately proven correct—but his actual warning comes across as hunches and gobbledygook. He says "there's a heaviness" instead of pointing to any concrete data to support his point.
Avalanche / int_77315f4f	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_77315f4f	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_77315f4f
Avalanche / int_7eebe99c	type	The Alcoholic
Avalanche / int_7eebe99c	comment	The ambulance that careens off the bridge (with David's mother inside) at the end winds up exploding into a mighty fireball shortly after landing. Jonah and the bots joke that it was caused by all the alcohol in Florence's blood.
Avalanche / int_7eebe99c	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_7eebe99c	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_7eebe99c
Avalanche / int_7f390ebc	type	Developing Doomed Characters
Avalanche / int_7f390ebc	comment	Developing Doomed Characters: Roughly 75% of the movie is spent introducing all these characters who will soon fall victim to the avalanche or in the ensuing mayhem that comes after it.
Avalanche / int_7f390ebc	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_7f390ebc	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_7f390ebc
Avalanche / int_83cef301	type	Right for the Wrong Reasons
Avalanche / int_83cef301	comment	Right for the Wrong Reasons: Nick Thorne spends most of the film being a doomsayer about a possible avalanche, saying he feels "a heaviness" about the mountain. He was correct about an avalanche happening, but the thing that causes the avalanche is not a natural but unnoticed heavy build-up of snow (which is what "a heaviness" definitely implies) but some idiot airplane pilot crashing into the side of the mountain and exploding like a miniature nuke.
Avalanche / int_83cef301	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_83cef301	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_83cef301
Avalanche / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
Avalanche / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: Some of the characters (such as the blonde figure skater and her coach) are shown getting swept away during the avalanche and are simply never seen again afterward. It can be assumed that they either died or were rescued at some point off-screen. We are not given any denouement on what happened to Jason after he is rescued from the ski-lift.
Avalanche / int_863fa679	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_863fa679	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_863fa679
Avalanche / int_8af25294	type	Bullet Time
Avalanche / int_8af25294	comment	Bullet Time: Used when a police car goes hurtling into a storefront.
Avalanche / int_8af25294	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_8af25294	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_8af25294
Avalanche / int_9b9d5657	type	Slow-Motion Fall
Avalanche / int_9b9d5657	comment	Slow-Motion Fall: Martin when he falls to his death from the ski lift.
Avalanche / int_9b9d5657	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_9b9d5657	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_9b9d5657
Avalanche / int_9beeb7d6	type	Death by Ambulance
Avalanche / int_9beeb7d6	comment	Death by Ambulance: The rescue workers cause more on-screen deaths than the avalanche does, including several caused by poor ambulance driving.
Avalanche / int_9beeb7d6	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_9beeb7d6	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_9beeb7d6
Avalanche / int_a70223	type	Karma Houdini
Avalanche / int_a70223	comment	Karma Houdini: Downplayed. David quite surprisingly survives the film, even getting through what appears to be a textbook Redemption Equals Death setup of risking his life to save his ex-wife. However, he's severely humbled by seeing all the destruction his ego has wrought; he's presumably financially ruined since all of his assets were invested in the resort; he loses his beloved mother; and he and said ex-wife don't actually get back together.
Avalanche / int_a70223	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_a70223	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_a70223
Avalanche / int_ab1c1cca	type	Characters Dropping Like Flies
Avalanche / int_ab1c1cca	comment	Characters Dropping Like Flies: As is typical of a disaster film (especially in this era), a lot of the supporting cast are slain by the titular disaster and some others die during the chaos of the rescue attempts.
Avalanche / int_ab1c1cca	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_ab1c1cca	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_ab1c1cca
Avalanche / int_b4eff8a8	type	Epic Fail
Avalanche / int_b4eff8a8	comment	Epic Fail: A surprising amount of the casualties of the avalanche are actually caused by the incompetence of the rescue workers. Florence in particular survives two near-death experiences in the avalanche, but dies due to the aforementioned idiot ambulance driver. The fire men fail to catch a slowly falling man right after he drops from a ski lift... after they had already caught a child who'd fallen in the same place. The most unlucky example is the poor fellow in town, nowhere near the avalanche, that gets run over by an out of control police car that careens off the street and hits him. This comes about via an unbelievable example of Disaster Dominoes. An equipment box falls off the back of a fire department pickup truck. The ambulance driver following the truck stops in the middle of the street and instantly gets out, causing the speeding police car directly behind him to swerve around him, lose control, and knock the pedestrian through a store window.
Avalanche / int_b4eff8a8	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_b4eff8a8	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_b4eff8a8
Avalanche / int_ba5bd7	type	Ignored Expert
Avalanche / int_ba5bd7	comment	Ignored Expert: Played with. David fought tooth and nail and to get his resort built against all the advice of the experts, but we're explicitly told that the reason it was such a fight is that everyone else listened to them and he couldn't get any partners or even a bank loan. And then there's Nick. Pretty much everything he says to David goes in one ear and out the other. It does not helps that all Nick has is a gut feeling, which he keeps describing as "a heaviness".
Avalanche / int_ba5bd7	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_ba5bd7	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_ba5bd7
Avalanche / int_cbe687ab	type	Corrupt Corporate Executive
Avalanche / int_cbe687ab	comment	Corrupt Corporate Executive: David is warned that the land is precarious, but he insists on still developing there.
Avalanche / int_cbe687ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_cbe687ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_cbe687ab
Avalanche / int_db165dcf	type	Doomed Hurt Guy
Avalanche / int_db165dcf	comment	Doomed Hurt Guy: Florence. All that time and effort spent digging her out, then reviving her, and she gets killed when her ambulance careens off of a rickety bridge, falls into water and blows up.
Avalanche / int_db165dcf	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_db165dcf	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_db165dcf
Avalanche / int_e4ba33fc	type	Disaster Dominoes
Avalanche / int_e4ba33fc	comment	This comes about via an unbelievable example of Disaster Dominoes. An equipment box falls off the back of a fire department pickup truck. The ambulance driver following the truck stops in the middle of the street and instantly gets out, causing the speeding police car directly behind him to swerve around him, lose control, and knock the pedestrian through a store window.
Avalanche / int_e4ba33fc	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_e4ba33fc	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_e4ba33fc
Avalanche / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
Avalanche / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Jerkass: David. He is a very stubborn and somewhat unscrupulous man who callously brushes off all warnings he gets about a potential avalanche until it's too late. Not to mention how domineering and possessive he is towards his ex-wife; it's a minor mercy that the movie doesn't have them reunite after the disaster (and even that is ambiguous).
Avalanche / int_eb8ec7c8	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_eb8ec7c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_eb8ec7c8
Avalanche / int_f96f188c	type	Drives Like Crazy
Avalanche / int_f96f188c	comment	Drives Like Crazy: The incompetent ambulance/police/fire truck drivers. The scene as they pull out of town in response to the avalanche has to be seen to be believed. This winds up getting Florence killed when one of these drivers takes a curve waaay too hard and shoots off a bridge into a ravine. To some extent, the pilot as well. Spending far too much time in low visibility conditions in a mountainous environment that they acknowledged was too dangerous. Arguably, every tragedy in the movie is a result of people being incompetent with vehicles, rather than the management of the lodge.
Avalanche / int_f96f188c	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_f96f188c	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_f96f188c
Avalanche / int_name	type	ItemName
Avalanche / int_name	comment
Avalanche / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
Avalanche / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
Avalanche	hasFeature	Avalanche / int_name
Avalanche / int_name	itemName	Avalanche

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Avalanche	hasFeature	Death by Ambulance / int_3a286bf9
Avalanche	hasFeature	Developing Doomed Characters / int_3a286bf9
Avalanche	hasFeature	Disaster Movie / int_3a286bf9
Avalanche	hasFeature	Extremely Short Timespan / int_3a286bf9
Avalanche	hasFeature	Hair-Trigger Avalanche / int_3a286bf9
Avalanche	hasFeature	Stuck on a Ski Lift / int_3a286bf9
Avalanche	hasFeature	Vacation Films / int_3a286bf9

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